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Place dossier plate
SheetIL-WILLOW-SPRINGS-IL · Willow Springs, IL 5,871 pop · income 80th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Willow Springs
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Willow Springs on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Metropolis · lowest
51,548
Metropolis · lowest
51,548 median HH income
25.1% of the leader · rank #1
Willow Springs · this city
103,429
Willow Springs · this city
103,429 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #2
Johnston · near
103,430
Johnston · near
103,430 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #3
Freeland · near
103,431
Freeland · near
103,431 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #4
Loomis · near
103,435
Loomis · near
103,435 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #5
Buckingham · near
103,438
Buckingham · near
103,438 median HH income
50.3% of the leader · rank #6
Lake Bluff · highest
205,735
Lake Bluff · highest
205,735 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Willow Springs on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 5,871.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Willow Springs - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Willow Springs lands in the 80th percentile for household income and the 90th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
80th
percentile, household income
74th
percentile, home value
18th
percentile, median rent
90th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Willow Springs, IL
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 5,871 residents in Willow Springs, a small town within Illinois. The typical household in Willow Springs brings in $103,429 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.4%. Typical homes in Willow Springs are valued around $370,900, and the median resident age is 45.4 years. 39.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 60.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 3 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Willow Springs reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 390.1 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Illinois tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Illinois scores 100.0 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,063 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Illinois run around $240, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 54.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Willow Springs's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to reported crime to comparison shortlist to housing and income to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Willow Springs, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is Willow Springs growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -64 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Willow Springs?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 390.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 83% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Which cities make useful reference points for Willow Springs?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Illinois, the closest population matches are Spring Grove (5,866 residents, $133,224 income); Lakemoor (5,878 residents, $96,929 income); Bartonville (5,854 residents, $67,674 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are East Quogue, NY (5,871 residents); Lakehills, TX (5,872 residents); Hightstown, NJ (5,869 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
How far does income reach against housing in Willow Springs?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Willow Springs?
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 39.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Poverty estimate
3.4%
Bachelor's degree+
39.1%
Matched public schools
1
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Willow Springs?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
80.8%
Work from home
12.3%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,014 workers age 16+.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Illinois average
B
City profile score · Willow Springs, IL
73/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income B+
$103,429
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B
39.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living D
100.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Willow Springs profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $103,429
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.4%
Bachelor's+ share: 74/100 (B) · 39.1%
Cost of living: 40/100 (D) · 100.0 index
Where Willow Springs sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Willow Springs's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Willow Springs highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Willow Springs, IL (this city): home $370,900, crime 390/100k
Hightstown, NJ : home $333,200, crime 754/100k
Media, PA : home $398,400, crime 1,794/100k
Venus, TX : home $253,500, crime 494/100k
Spring Grove, IL : home $371,200, crime 416/100k
Lakemoor, IL : home $261,300, crime 1,439/100k
Bartonville, IL : home $128,000, crime 2,408/100k
Metropolis, IL : home $93,700, crime 1,554/100k
Lake Bluff, IL : home $739,400, crime 871/100k
Peoria Heights, IL : home $118,000, crime 3,474/100k
How does Willow Springs compare to other US cities?
Here's how Willow Springs stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value74% pricier than other cities
Median rent18% pricier than other cities
Safety90% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Illinois and the picture shifts: Willow Springs ranks #85 of 455 Illinois cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Willow Springs against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Illinois only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Illinois-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Willow Springs near the bottom of Illinois's cities
Among the 1,336 Illinois cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Willow Springs ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Willow Springs only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#200 of 1,311
85th percentile in Illinois
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,336
0th percentile in Illinois
Median Home Value
#82 of 1,315
94th percentile in Illinois
Poverty Rate
#989 of 1,335
25th percentile in Illinois
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#195 of 1,336
85th percentile in Illinois
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Illinois only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
80th percentile nationally for median household income · 90th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Willow Springs's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Willow Springs's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Willow Springs's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$370,90026th percentilemore affordable than 26% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Willow Springs's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,311 of 15,516
More affordable than 40% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,477 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.6×, Willow Springs sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,311 of 15,516 and #7,477 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$103,429Willow Springs, IL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Willow Springs, IL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Willow Springs, IL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
5,871
Median Income
$103,429
Median Home Value
$370,900
Median Age
45.4
Poverty Rate
3.4%
Labor force participation
60.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
390.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
390.1
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Willow Springs's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,852 residents
2021
5,752 residents
2022
5,757 residents
2023
5,748 residents
2024
5,793 residents
2025
5,788 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.8M
2020
3
3
0
$0.8M
2021
41
3
38
$14.7M
2022
1
1
0
$0.3M
2023
4
4
0
$1.4M
2024
3
3
0
$1.1M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.8%
Carpool
6.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
12.3%
Based on 3,014 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Illinois statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $240
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Illinois at $240 (electricity about $100 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Illinois statewide averages, not a meter reading for Willow Springs. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Illinois's BEA cost-of-living index is 100.0 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Willow Springs is $1,063/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Illinois statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 54.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Illinois statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Willow Springs sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Willow Springs compares to similar-size Illinois cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.